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Official PlayStation Vita Thread

January 26, 2009 - The evolution of the PSP has been one of small incremental updates rather than drastic aesthetic and hardware reconfigurations. Since its debut in 2005 the PSP has undergone two mild hardware adjustments with the PSP-2000 and the PSP-3000. While the 2000 series altered the handheld in terms of form -- slimming down the hardware by 33% in weight, and 19% in thickness -- the 3000 series made some notable functional improvements, such as a built-in microphone. The 2000 and 3000 series ensured the continued success of the PSP brand across North America and Europe, many gamers have been clamoring for a full-fledged PSP 2 for months.

Although Sony has consistently denied that any such product is in development, rumors and predictions have been circling for over a year about a forthcoming PSP 2. Last week we posted our predictions for the seemingly inevitable sequel to the popular handheld, citing hardware improvements like dual thumbsticks and a touch screen interface, but now we've learned that our hopes and dreams for the system may be, in part, dead on the money.

IGN has learned from several credible sources that the PSP 2 is indeed on the horizon, and will be packing multi-touch technology. According to our sources, the PSP 2 will feature a widescreen multi-touch interface comparable to that of the iPhone for both in-game control and menu navigation. Unfortunately, we were unable to secure any additional details on the alleged new system, but this latest batch of rumors seems to fall in line with other recent claims orbiting the vast recesses of the internet.

This latest batch of rumors comes on the heels of an allegedly official Sony survey leaked by enthusiast blog, PSPFanboy.com, which asked consumers what features would compel them the most to buy a new PSP. Among the choices offered by the survey were a touch screen interface, Bluetooth support, an integrated hard drive, GPS, and nationwide wireless networking. If true, the survey seems to further suggest that Sony is in the process of drastically revising the PSP's core hardware.

We contacted Sony representatives for further comment on the matter, but their response was unsurprisingly straight out of the rumor-response playbook, "We can't comment on rumors or speculation."

Apparently they don't want to actually gain any sort of insight into what people might actually want in a new PSP.
It seems like their survey boils down to "what obvious and unimaginative upgrades should we play up the most when we release the inevitable PSP-4000."

They don't give a fuck what you guys think. You're all computer savvy and just figure out how to pirate everything anyway. How many of you don't have a PSP with custom firmware?

They're obviously going directly after the iPod Touch market - a vast arcadian field of doofuses who don't nitpick over things like quality and are willing to spend. They probably figure that with the junk Apple's allowing on there, they can cream them head to head. They also see all their developers moving over there.

That said, I'll be pretty surprised if it doesn't have dual analogue nubs. I'm guessing their gameplan is in part to shovel downloadable PS2 stuff onto it via PSN. And then you'll all go "ZOMG, PORTABLE DARK CLOUD!" and buy it anyway.

I don't have a PSP with custom firmware. Once I got over the nostalgia kick I never much bothered with emulators, and Istopped pirating games a loooong time ago. I barely have the time to play the stuff I want to spend money on, after all.

I never pirated PSP games, but the homebrew applications for PSP made it a laptop replacement for me when I went on short trips-- especially in 2005 when PSP was either bare-bones on features, or Sony restricted access to functionality that they finally added to official firmware in 2009. It would be nice if PSP had an App Store-like solution, but I'm not holding my breath for that.

I hated UMD's for years as well, but I'm also not holding my breath for Sony to allow full game installs to memory stick.

I don't have a PSP with custom firmware. Once I got over the nostalgia kick I never much bothered with emulators, and Istopped pirating games a loooong time ago. I barely have the time to play the stuff I want to spend money on, after all.

James

Aside from homebrew, the best part of a modded PSP is being able to convert your games to a bootable file. Much shorter load times, no irritating UMD garbage, longer battery life.